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There are four curves which are closely related. These are the epicycloid, the epitrochoid, the hypocycloid and the hypotrochoid and they are traced by a point P on a circle of radius b which rolls round a fixed circle of radius a.

For the hypocycloid, an example of which is shown above, the circle of radius b rolls on the inside of the circle of radius a. The point P is on the circumference of the circle of radius b. For the example a = 5 and b = 3.